This blog has been created to help everyone understand the importance of hair care and how to achieve the best results possible using our hair products as well as any others. We will feature sections on basic hair care, natural hair care recipes/remedies and hair styling. Our main aim is to educate and inform through online interaction. It is our belief that anyone regardless of nationality, genetics, hair type etc can achieve longer, healthier hair.

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Monday, 16 September 2013

Black Tea Rinse to Reduce Hair Shedding

Shedding is a natural process
which happens to everyone and is how our hair renews itself (you can read this
post here on how to determine if your hair is shedding or breaking). However an excessive
amount of shedding due to stress, pregnancy, weight loss, and so on can lead to loss in length
and volume of our hair.

Black tea is an excellent way to stop our hair from
shedding as much. This is because it contains caffeine which blocks DHT, (dihydrotestosterone) a hormone which is responsible for hair loss and makes it
impossible for healthy hair to thrive. Black tea also darkens the hair and
gives it strength and shine.

Do not search high and low for black
tea as it is none other than regular tea we drink every day so brands such as
lipton, pg tips or tetley are examples of black tea that can be used for tea rinses.
It is important that when doing the black tea rinse you do not opt for decaffeinated
tea as the caffeine in the tea is the integral component of the rinse.

If you are experiencing a lot of
shedding or if you will like to minimise the amount of hair shed, a black tea rinse might just be the remedy you are
seeking. Another substitute for a black tea rinse is a coffee rinse which is equally
effective because it contains caffeine like black tea and some say that it is
gentler on the hair strands. You can also try black tea which contains other additional natural
ingredients such as chamomile, rosemary, lavender and so on. The procedure as outlined
below can also be used for coffee rinses if your prefer this.

The amount of tea used will
vary on a person’s hair needs and what works for them. However anything from 2-10
bags is an adequate amount of tea. Simply steep the tea bags in hot water (in a
medium sized bowl or pitcher) for ten to fifteen minutes and allow to cool with the
tea bags still in or you can take them out. You can also choose to leave the
tea bags in overnight in the fridge so that the tea is very strong. Once the tea is
cool it is ready to use.

There are various ways to use
black tea to reduce shedding however it is important to remember that due to
the caffeine content, black tea will result in hard hair. So one should use a moisture deep conditioner whilst doing these rinses. If you do not know how to identify a
moisture from a protein conditioner please read this post here. Here are the various
way to use black tea rinses to combat shedding:

1. After shampooing your hair and drying
it. Take the bowl or pitcher of black tea and pour it over your hair slowly
concentrating on your scalp. You can also apply the black tea using a bottle with an
applicator tip or you can use a regular bottle and punch a hole in the cap
(excellent diy alternative). After pouring it over your hair, cover you hair
with a plastic cap anywhere between ten minutes to an hour. Rinse out and then
apply some moisturising deep conditioner on your hair, cover hair and leave for
the required amount of time and then rinse.

2. An alternative to the above
method is that after pouring the tea on your hair and leaving it on for the
required amount of time under a plastic cap, you do not rinse out but apply the
moisture deep conditioner over it.

3. Another alternative is that you
pour the tea on your hair and immediately apply a moisturising deep conditioner
over it and then cover hair for the required amount of time and rinse.

4. You can also apply the tea to your hair before shampooing and conditioning as a form of pre shampoo treatment. Cover your hair and leave the tea on your hair for the required amount of time, rinse and shampoo and condition as normal.

PS. Wear some old clothes when doing
this treatment and wash your bathtub immediately afterwards to prevent the tea from staining
it.

Have you tried black tea rinses, what was your experience with it or is this a treatment you will be willing to try? Hope everyone is sticking to the rules of the Birthday Hair Growth Challenge, we have a little over a month to go.

TONKABELLE, xoxo

And now these three remain, faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love - 1 Cor. 13 v 13, Holy Bible, New International Version

I have been on the black tea bandwagon since day 1 of my journey, I misunderstood breaking for shedding, now I have stopped using black tea and use more herbal teas rosemary and ginger tea, as I hope they will be good for the scalp. Not quite sure of the benefits are they don't have any caffeine.

Great post Tonkabelle. This has been on my list of things to try for so long. I'm so silly that I didn't even realise black tea was normal tea! I tried coffee when I first started my hair journey, but only the once so I'm not sure how well it works x

Thanks for this very informative post dearie. I am not one to jump into many hair regime's cos there's just so much out there for one to keep up with. Since i started my journey, I just try to do what works for me. Your blog is where i come to when i am unsure about a particular hair therapy :-) I have heard a lot about the black tea rinse, but never got round to doing it. I would try it and see how it goes.

This is really amazing. I just google-d the topic and was led straight to this wonderful blog. But I have a few questions. Will this treatment help reduce hair breakage because it is my major problem. My hair tends to break in the front making me bald. I am on dreadlocks and have been using many natural products like JBCO, shea butter oil and aloe vera. But to no avail and the hair growth is really slow. Any more tips to help pls? God bless you!

I used the rinse today due my hair coming out in a big spot in the top of my head and tremendously excessive shedding. My hair as gotten extremely thin in just two weeks. I have not combed or ran my fingers thru my hair since I pinned it up today, but before I pinned it up the shedding was basically gone. I have a question. Do u throw out the tea that u didn't use in the bottle? or can u save it? And should u only do the rinse once a month, once a week or twice a month?

I used the rinse today due my hair coming out in a big spot in the top of my head and tremendously excessive shedding. My hair as gotten extremely thin in just two weeks. I have not combed or ran my fingers thru my hair since I pinned it up today, but before I pinned it up the shedding was basically gone. I have a question. Do u throw out the tea that u didn't use in the bottle? or can u save it? And should u only do the rinse once a month, once a week or twice a month?